For anyone who doesn’t know, this is from Palworld, this is a Pal who has neutral traits. It can be male or female. So of course people feel the need to give it female sex characteristics just to objectify and sexualize.

I’m so tired.

I was playing a team shooter and played with a guy he send me a friendship request. Because communication is quite important in that game we shared our discord and played like 2 times for a few hours. Nothing romantic from my side we talked a little about hobbys and stuff, he was nice. No problem.

In the game there are some cosmetics for your character you can buy. I just said that I would like to get this or that. He implied that he would buy it for me. Not directly but I knew what he ment. I refused.

Now he wrote me his Mobile in discord and said I could message him anytime and he would always be there for me.

Man why can't you just have a friendship when you get along good. He's even from another country, wouldn't make any sense.

I only now have seen announcement and truth to be told I’m quite upset about it, because it feels like rip off. And I really want this game to do well sales wise.

Also, collector’s editions were declining for some time already since studios stopped including discs with game, but they at least put game code and cute steel book. I really hope that this merch boxes without the actual game won’t become a new norm.

I always try to make it clear firsthand when I feel like someone is getting close with me that I’m not looking for a relationship, especially when its LDR. Sometimes I feel like it’s my fault because when I’m being friendly, they took it as I’m flirting with them. I’m so sad because I like gaming with them and they’re really funny and it’s hard for me to meet a group of friends that likes the same games as I do. But now it’s awkward for me to play with them because the guy who confessed to me is kinda like the one who brings everyone together so it’s just better for me to stay away because he told me his feelings will just get worse if he keeps being around me like he won’t be able to move on.

And all three times it started when they started DM-ing me that they’re sad and want to vent about their personal problems. I’m a good listener and I like cheering people up so I gave them advice and cheer them up and after some time they told me they’re interested in me. Its always the same pattern. I hate this, I just want a group of friends to game with, not IRL dating simulator. It’s the third time that happened so I don’t know if it’s them or my own fault that’s getting me into these situations, like am I being too friendly or was I not clear enough that I’m not looking for romance? Idk anymore

Update: I woke up and he filled my DMs asking me to come back and apologising, saying he made a mistake and shouldn’t have put me through that. He’s asking the other friends to message me to come back as well. I’m done tho, can’t go back, too awkward.

I was watching the livestream of the Nice Regional VGC Championship. They featured a match between two up and coming players Daniel Zamora and Sara Spiller.

Sara won the match in three sets, with the last one being very close and the live chat had many comments of people losing their minds over her win saying she got lucky and won't go far in the tournament. Like is it hard to accept that a woman won a match because she was the better player?

Hello! I started keeping a journal this year for the games I play, just making simple 2 page spreads about how I felt playing the game. It has been so much fun!

Journalling had really helped me understand the games better. Do any of you also keep journals for your games?

Been hyped for Dawnwalker for over 2 years, had my eye on it since the early days where I wasn't even sure it was real!!!

And as a CAPITAL I Immersive gamer girly GTA6 looks absolutely impeccable.

But alas my life derailed pretty substantially and it looks like December-January will be the time I catch up. Finding solace in some classics (RDR1 Shout Out) and more "do-whatever" a la project zomboid.

I'm truly passionate about games, they have fascinated and inspired me since I was like 7 years old, so I hope that puts into perspective just HOW big a decision for me it has been to willingly avoid 2 things I just KNOW will keep me occupied and inspired during a really complicated time.

LOCKIN IN, CHOOMS!!!

I am literally doing extra work at the moment so I can take more time off at the start of the month. My boyfriend as well, initially we were gonna choose one game to play but we decided to try out both and see what we stick with.

I haven't really seriously played an MMO for years now and I miss it. Some old WoW friends are also coming back for WoW Forever so that's gonna be great. I don't know how much free time we will have after the month though so I'm not sure if we will stick with it, it can be really time consuming. But for now the plan is to try to basically recreate our old guild, most of the core members and officers will be playing.

And as far as Loftia goes I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it on reddit. I was in the play test and it was really fun. It's more of a casual community focused game (no combat or traditional MMO gear treadmill). Since its not really a traditional MMO I don't know what to expect progression wise and how much time investment games like this expect from players. I am assuming its probably going to be better long term since we will only have about a month to really no life, after that we go back to our regular work schedule.

Anything else exciting coming out in November? I would love to hear what everyone else will be playing.

I've been deeply entrenched in gaming + tech spaces all my life, for better and worse. Time and again, I stumble into this phenomena of women who are either actively hostile to other women, or they soften and excuse blatant misogyny while deflecting criticism.

But why is this so widespread?

Even today, it's exceedingly difficult in my experience to find female creators who don't slip into the grift or repeat "anti-woke" dogwhistles. There's also this pick-me attitude with it, where these are women who claim to be "real gamers" and supposedly don't do it for attention, as they say. Paradoxically, their allegiance to the manosphere begs male attention more than what they supposedly claim to be against, but I digress.

I find the idea absurd on many accounts. Firstly and most obvious, gaming is a very expensive investment if the desired outcome is male validation. Logistically, it makes no sense. The second point is that it insidiously takes the side of misogynistic men, allies with them and further perpetuates harmful stereotypes under some guise of being the exception to this rule they've made out of thin air. Not once do they have any interest in exploring what a woman gains from "faking an interest," nor do they spend a second considering what it says about men who would buy the attention of women in games in hopes of nude pictures. Because that's always why they would ever offer carries or boosts to female gamers. This conveniently gets forgotten every time.

On the complete flip side of the same coin, there's also a rise in self-perpetuated "pinkification," where female gamers try to pinkify their games to justify their interests. Arguing for how it's "cozy," using reductive reasonings for their enjoyment and linking it to "I'm just a girl" type of self-minimization. I saw an example of this where a woman made a "why girls play wow" post and she made it all about housekeeping and keeping pets. Let's not pretend not to know what the implication is here.

To clarify, there's nothing wrong with playing something for the cozy aspects of it (e.g for the farming/base building). It's when you start to wrap your enjoyment in gender essentialist bullshit with a demure bow that I find it strange. Especially in a time where women are already pushed back on every single front imaginable, to the point where the games we're allowed to enjoy have to be either cozy or devoid of challenge. No one's saying you can't enjoy these things. No one's saying you can't make a game unintentionally cozy. But we can't keep pretending to be dense when making a game cozy becomes "for the girls", at which point it becomes no different to the old "games for girls" shovelware era where companies decided to "shrink it and pink it."

Most tiring of all this is the obtuseness of people when you point this out. Any criticism of women (even when they're perpetuating harmful rhetoric) gets quickly flattened into "let people enjoy things" and "stop policing women."

It's extremely hypocritical imo to don a faux-feminist shield to criticism and claiming "women are allowed to enjoy things" while consistently and constantly arguing for WHY women enjoy things in a way you'd never do for a man and his interests. My criticism can of course be overshot or wrong, but simply shutting it down by saying I'm attacking women without pointing out how isn't an argument, and it only further reaffirms my stance that women aren't regarded as people within the conversation when they're robbed of accountability for harm by virtue of being a woman.

Obviously, most women within these spaces are reasonable and don't play these mental gymnastics. But it's very hard to navigate online gaming spaces without encountering any of the above.

But why especially in gaming spaces, more than anywhere else?

It's extremely baffling to me, and frankly sad more than it's irritating to see a woman stand by male grifters online who wouldn't spit on them if they were on fire. Part of me feels it's a result of growing up interested in a medium that, let's be quite honest here, historically hasn't wanted us in it until recently, and now trying to justify decades of covert hostility from media you've enjoyed. Or maybe it's something else entirely. I just wanted to open a discussion that hopefully doesn't invite mud throwing.

I'm curious what's yall's greatest gaming achievements are, something that you are really proud of whether it's beating a really difficult boss, platinum trophied multiple games or something else entirely?

Mine is beating the Mantis Lords sisters no-hit challenge in Hollow Knight!
I'm deafblind (tunnel vision, moderate hearing loss) so I couldn't actually see the sisters attacking from the sides. I had to learn their patterns and rely heavily on any environmental clues and I died SO MANY TIMES. I had tried on off for days and then suddenly, I did it!

It's been a few years since but it is still my proudest game moment!

I'd love to hear yours!

Inspired by a post I saw earlier of people sharing their diaries and notebooks, I went down a rabbit hole reading about Elden Ring and I’m really intrigued to buy it, but also overwhelmed.

I’m a casual gamer, I love adventure games like First Light, Uncharted, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I also really enjoyed Breath of The Wild and Witcher 3.

Elder Ring obviously has amazing reviews but I feel intimidated by it as I’m not super experienced playing RPGs. Honestly I’m a bit of a button masher lol. Like how do you know what type of character to build? I don’t know what kind of play style I have.

Should I give it a go? It’s £50 which is a fair amount of money.

I'm sorry if this doesn't belong here, but I'm hoping for a female gamer perspective. Please delete if it's not appropriate for this sub

I have a co-worker/friend who is getting married soon and she and her soon-to-be husband are both avid gamers. I know next to nothing about gaming but I want to get them a great wedding present. They've recently moved into a new place so I was thinking something to add to their setup but I don't want it to be too big in case they don't have room and I also don't want to get them something that they would likely already have.

ETA since it's been mentioned a bunch of times- they do not have a registry. It's a very small non-traditional wedding and I don't think they are expecting many gifts

Short games I've already finished are:

Firewatch

Mixtape

What Remains of Edith Finch

A Short Hike

Lake

Unpacking

Venba

Assemble with Care

Bramble The Mountain King

Shady Part of Me

I'm not picky with genres at all, I really enjoy "walking sims" but I love many different genres so anything you've enjoyed, that you can easily finish in 1 day, please recommend!!!

Thank you ❤️

Local multiplayer is a plus too but hardly necessary. I like shooter games but I've never played call of duty because tbh I just assumed it was multiplayer only. I've heard good things about the 2019 Modern Warfare game, and someone also recommend Black Ops...II? I think?

There are so many though and its a little overwhelming? Are the campaigns all part of the same continuous story like Halo or Mass Effect? Or is it more like Fallout or Elder Scrolls where the games all take place in the same universe but the stories are pretty self contained? Thank you in advance for all of your help :)

You might not expect it, but the game is Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave—specifically for the heartwarming bond between Alexandra and her beloved pegasus, Bucephalus. Alexandra isn’t one of the main lords/protagonists, which I honestly love because it keeps her story with Bucephalus feeling so grounded, pure, and flawless. 

Without giving away too many spoilers, here are two details that made me fall completely in love with this pair:
1. Bucephalus always comes first: After a humiliating defeat, if you go talk to Alexandra, she vows never to fight with a cowardly mentality again because doing so makes Bucephalus look pitiful and reduces her beloved partner to a mere "tool for war." Even at the lowest point in her life, she views Bucephalus as her most cherished family member.
2. The sweetest family ending (with WLW romance!): When you reach the end of the game and marry her as the protagonist, Eshmel (and yes, Female Eshmel can marry Alexandra! 💕), the writers at Intelligent Systems didn't forget how important Bucephalus is to her. In their S-Support ending, the three of us form the warmest little family together. 

I wanted to share four of my favorite screenshots of Alexandra and Bucephalus together: 
Photo 1: The S-Support ending between Alexandra and Eshmel, where Alexandra gently reaches out to Bucephalus and tells the two of us that we are her most cherished family members. 
Photo 2: Alexandra and Bucephalus fighting side-by-side before the time skip. 
Photo 3: Alexandra and Bucephalus hitting their super cool victory pose! 
Photo 4: The three of us officially becoming a family together. 

Hi everyone,
I’m a girl gamer, and I need to shed light on a massive issue with the Xbox Looking For Group (LFG) system and automated bans.
I play a lot of Fortnite. Over the years, I've had to quit the game for long stretches of time for one simple reason: whenever I make an LFG post, random men join my party and act absolutely disgusting. When I tell them to leave and remove them, they maliciously report me for random violations. Even men I don't invite will spam my LFG posts and report them out of spite, even though I've never broken a single guideline.
The worst I have ever done in a lobby is some mild cursing, yet I get hit with constant temporary suspensions. Because the suspensions are relatively short, they are unappealable. When you try to reach an actual person at Xbox or Microsoft support to explain what is happening, you are completely gatekept by an AI. It is ridiculous. A few years ago, I actually had to quit Fortnite for two full years because I was running out of enforcement "streaks" and was terrified of losing my entire account permanently just because these people wouldn't stop.
I recently started playing again about a month ago, and it's already happening all over again. Men are spamming my LFG posts with messages saying "reported" simply because I didn't invite them. Just today, mid-game, I was hit with another notification.
Being a girl gamer is already difficult enough, but constantly getting suspended for things I didn't do because of upset men is exhausting. Microsoft and Xbox would rather rely on a broken AI reporting system than put an actual human in front of you who can understand the nuance of targeted harassment.
I’ve pulled all-nighters for this game, especially lately trying to collect the new sprites, and now I can't even enjoy it with my friends. I'm not posting this expecting Microsoft to magically fix it for me today, but to shed light on a toxic loophole that I know so many other women are going through. Something needs to change. I want to be black in no way am I trying to target men or any of that stuff? I’ve had my post taken down already when trying to post it somewhere else this is simply to share my story and make awareness.

Looking for games in the tidy up genre on Steam where you also can earn player cards and get a badge (I like to collect badges).

Often when I say I like 100% games outside of achievement hunting communities the first response I get is either "It sucks the fun out of a game" or "It's pointless" - well not for me! I love the feeling of closure that I truly experienced all a game has to offer I get when I finish all achievements, and that I may have seen things the majority of players haven't ever seen in my path to 100%

omg yall I spotted a second woman in today's launch trailer walking into a vault with Lucia, now this could be her sister or maybe her bestie, whoever she is, I'm so hyped for this - WOMEN IN STEM CRIME

Hello fellow GirlGamers :3

The lovely mod team has allowed me to share a bit about a wonderful indie Soulslike I'm in love with for a long time even though it hasn't been released yet - so far, only trailers and demos exist, along with a release date in early 2027. The game is called Prison of Husks - female-centred sapphic love story told in a unique, nostalgic, soulsy way.

Visually inspired by early PlayStation classics like Ico, Prison of Husks revives the design philosophy of early souls games, blending that genre formula with innovative new ideas and mechanics I absolutely adore. For me Prison of Husks isn't just an incredibly promising title, it also offers a safe space for women and queer people within the souls and broader gaming community. It is the work of a openly queer female-led team and supported by a diverse, queer-friendly community. I'm a trans woman myself and I have rarely felt as welcome, wanted and safe as I do in this community.

This community has also become very dear to me - I spend a lot of time on the Discord server and in the Steam forum, maintain the speedrun.com page, and try to stay active in other ways as well. It’s worth it. The people there are lovely, and great care is taken to ensure that there is no place for any form of misogyny, anti-queer sentiment, or other types of exclusion and discrimination.

I’ve always been a huge enthusiast but rarely have I been as much of a fan as I am here, because I feel that as a fan, I am genuinely wanted and welcome - not just by the artists, but also by the surrounding community.

Especially in recent years, I’ve felt increasingly uncomfortable in certain gaming spaces and always looked at for example cozy game communities with a touch of envy. The atmosphere there was always different, but those simply weren't the games for me. Prison of Husks has given me a home within my favorite genre: a souls-like game created by a wonderful woman from the queer community, for everyone who want's to create a safe space for woman and queer people.

I love everything about this game. The visuals, the crumbling world full of female characters and us right in the middle of it as a doll searching for our beloved. The approach of weaving queer themes into the storytelling of a souls-like is so beautiful, and for me it works perfectly.

There is also a new trailer that really captures the vibe beautifully! Maybe some of you were looking for something similar and find it like I did in Prison of Husks. 🖤
Thank you again at the mod team for letting me post this even I'm not the developer c: I hope many of you like the game and if you have any questions, just ask! Thanks for reading! 🖤

This is meant to be a positive post but given the topic I thought it best to use the "Misogyny" tag

Everytime I'm confronted with the idea that people think women and girls don't play video games I have to laugh at the absurdity. My mom bought us our first game console way back in the 80's (I'm dating myself here which I'm not fond of but it seems necessary). It was a NES and I was too young to really have much success, instead I would sit with my mom while she played and we would discuss strategy and the like throughout. She LOVED puzzles and adventure games. Some of our favorites were Castlevania (the inspiration for this post given the new game), Metroid, Zelda, Star Tropics and similiar games.

I remember back before the internet we had the Nintendo Tip Line where you could call and someone would give you hints on what to do if you were lost and she would have me call them whenever we got truly stuck. Star Tropics had a physical map that came bundled with the game and you had to dunk it in water to reveal a hidden message to solve one of the puzzles. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world.

My dad tried but his forray into video games was short lived. He really liked Megaman but he had a short temper (shocking, I know) and decided it was not good for him.

These were always some of my absolutely favorite memories of my mom and my childhood and I really cherish them. I was a gamer ever since. Much like how I used to watch my mom, my younger sisters ended up watching me play a lot nad they have a lot of positive memories associated with that experience too. It was never even a question whether it was odd for any of us to be playing, we all had girl friends (and me being a lesbian, girlfriends also) who played too.

That's why the notion that we don't play video games or that it's a new phenomenom has always been so baffling to me.